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Sexual conflict and protein polymorphism.

Ralph Haygood1

  • 1Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. rhaygood@wisc.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|September 3, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Sexual conflict drives the evolution of reproductive proteins. Mathematical models show that specific dominance patterns in diploid expression can maintain genetic diversity, potentially leading to reproductive isolation.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics
  • Reproductive biology

Background:

  • Sexual conflict arises from differing male and female reproductive interests.
  • This conflict is often mediated by interacting male/sperm and female/egg proteins.
  • A consequence can be the maintenance of genetic diversity (polymorphism) in these proteins.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the conditions favoring polymorphism maintenance in sexual conflict.
  • To model sexual conflict over mating and fertilization frequency.
  • To analyze the role of protein expression (haploid vs. diploid) and dominance patterns.

Main Methods:

  • Development of mathematical models representing male/sperm ligand-female/egg receptor interactions.
  • Analysis of models with haploid and diploid protein expression.
  • Examination of dominance patterns in diploid models.

Main Results:

  • For diploid expression, dominance patterns, not overdominance or underdominance, are key to polymorphism maintenance.
  • Fitter-allele dominance in diploid ligands (where heterozygotes resemble the fitter homozygote) promotes polymorphism.
  • This suggests biochemistry may favor fitter-allele dominance, making polymorphism common.

Conclusions:

  • Mathematical models reveal conditions for polymorphism maintenance under sexual conflict.
  • Diploid expression and specific dominance patterns significantly influence the persistence of genetic variation in reproductive proteins.
  • This genetic diversity may contribute to reproductive isolation between populations.

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